Tag: opportunity

Choices

Every minute of every day we are faced with choices. Each decision we make leads us along a new path. The road to our future is determined by the choices we make now.

Unconscious of the fact that we are making these choices we are led down the well trodden paths of decisions already made. The road we choose appears familiar because our habitual conditioning has led us this way before.

Why is this?

Because invariably we take the easy option over the better one. We settle for the comfort zone, afraid to venture into realms unknown and the excitement of unchartered paths. The easy choice means we don’t have to think or take action. If we did, we would have to take responsibility; a rare experience indeed.

The true purpose

The true purpose of life is expansion and growth. When we take the easy option we are not being truthful to ourselves. We are settling for less than we are and our lives are forged by the dreams of others.

What happens to us? We become ‘set in our ways’ and grow weaker through inactivity. When we don’t think for ourselves our brains become dull. When we are physically inactive we become weak. When we eat the wrong things our energy is depleted and we fall victim to bad health. And all because we choose the easy option.

The better option

We can’t possibly move forward unless we choose the better option. We can only grow by overcoming challenges, experiencing setbacks and taking responsibility. This is achieved by taking on things bigger than we are, by extending ourselves to become better than we were.

There is no doubt we will experience defeat but this is just an inevitable part of the process. Successful people aren’t successful because they haven’t experienced failure.

On the contrary, they generally have experienced failure more often than most. Neither are they luckier than most. As one famous quote by Roy D Chapin Jr puts it “Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet.”

Opportunity is down the path we have never traveled not in the places we keep coming back to. Successful people are simply better prepared to make the most of any opportunity that comes their way.

How are they better prepared? Because they chose a different way; when the going got tough they chose the better option.

How do we know what choices to make?

When we know what our goals are the better option is immediately apparent. It is the option that leads us towards our goal in the quickest way possible. It is not some subtle distraction that takes our sight off the target or a well crafted excuse to procrastinate.

It gets us from point A to point B via the shortest route even if that means leaving the comfort zone to do it. We forge new paths, experience new things and grow even stronger as a result.

Do you see how we make our own luck? Treading the same path day after day is hardly the recipe for success.

Do yourself and everyone else in your life a favor. Go for your biggest dreams and make the world a better place. Choose the better option over the easy option every time.

Even though the Softcard was a slight diversion from Microsoft’s normal focus on computer language software, Gates embraced it because it represented yet another strategic opportunity to extend CP/M’s market domination while also binding Microsoft BASIC to CP/M. Microsoft eventually sold hundreds of thousands of Softcards, which told Sams that it was a popular and reliable product.

Sams started his software hunt by contacting Gates and proposing IBM license the Softcard, along with all other programming languages Microsoft offered.

What Sams didn’t understand was that although Softcard was a Microsoft product, its most valuable feature was the CP/M operating system, owned by Digital Research. Gates told Sams that IBM needed to license CP/M directly from Kildall and offered to help Sams make the deal happen.

At the time, Gates accepted his subordinate position in the software food chain. He had positioned Microsoft so that the company’s success was dependent on CP/M’s continued market domination. If CP/M were paired with Microsoft BASIC inside the new IBM PC, Gates saw how the two complementary programs might be inseparable as industry leaders for years to come.

Gates arranged the initial meeting with IBM and Kildall. With Sams in the room, Gates called Kildall and said he was sending an important client and that Kildall should, according to sources, “treat them right.”

Gates’ phone call, however didn’t do much good. Almost nothing went right when Sams and his team sat down with Kildall and his wife Dorothy, who managed the business side of Digital Research. At first, Dorothy absolutely refused to sign IBM’s strict, strongly worded confidentiality agreement. An entire day wasted discussing what, if anything, the two parties could discuss.

I will not forget her smile, so sweet and can be tasted from the air, upon seeing us arriving at her doorsteps. Puzzled, she ask, “So how are you guys doing?”, as she kisses and embraces my mom.

We brought some rice cake, corn pudding and roasted chicken, which are all comfort food of my grandmom.

There is no occasion, we just decide to pay her a surprise visit in her house as my mom misses her.

At a glance, you will notice how difficult for her to stand up and walk and move, due to age and some health conditions, but the same glance it is obvious how strong the woman is.

Way back when my siblings and I were growing up, my parents used to bring us to our grandmom’s residence in Manila or in her Fruit Store in GSIS office. I remember one time when we eat up all the available bananas in her fruit stand, and instead of getting angry, grandmom disciplined us with a sweet smile.

All her life, she is working hard to support some of her children and her grandchildren. A lot of times, she is too busy doing things for a living and she almost always forget to have a life.

Sometimes, we would invite her over for an out-of-town family get away to relax and have fun.

She is a real champion of hard-work, and it never fails her.

We can also enjoy our work. King Solomon advised “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where we will go” (vv. 10)”. Whatever our job or role in life, we can still do things that matter, and do them very well. We can encourage people, pray, and express love each day.

The Wise King also told us, “Time and chance happen to them all… No one knows when our lives on earth will end, but gladness and purpose can be found in this day by relying on God’s strength and depending on Jesus’ promise of eternal life (John 6:47)

Grandmom Ofelia reminds me to live each day well. Death is a reminder of life, and life is a gift. King Solomon said, “Anyone who is among the living has hope (Ecclesiastes 9:4). Life on Earth gives us the chance to influence and enjoy the world around us. We can eat and drink happily and relish our relationships” (vv. 7, 9).

To my grandmom, who is now goes back to her Creator, we would like to thank you for the opportunity you gave us to live, for all the lessons you taught, and for the unconditional love you brought. We will surely MISS BEING WITH YOU.

And so I continued to work. In 1943, I expanded and began trading goods between Cebu and Manila. From Cebu, I would transport tires on a small boat called a batel. After traveling for five days to Lucena (Capital City of Quezon Province, located in Southern Luzon Island), I would load them into a truck for the six- hour trip to Manila. I would end up sitting on top of my goods so they would not be stolen! In Manila, I would then purchase other goods from the earnings I made from the tires, to sell in Cebu.

Then, when WWII ended, I saw the opportunity for trading goods in post-war Philippines I was 20 years old. With my brother Henry, I put up Amasia Trading which imported onions, flour, used clothing, old newspapers and magazines, and fruits from the United States. In 1948, my mother and I got my siblings back from China. I also converted a two-story building in Cebu to serve as our home, office, and warehouse all at the same time. The whole family began helping out with the business.

In 1957, at age 31, I spotted an opportunity in corn-starch manufacturing. But I was going to compete with Ludo and Luym, the richest group in Cebu and the biggest cornstarch manufacturers. I borrowed money to finance the project. The first bank I approached made me wait for two hours, only to refuse my loan. The second one, China Bank, approved a P500,000-peso clean loan for me. Years later, the banker who extended that loan, Dr. Albino Sycip said that he saw something special in me. Today, I still wonder what that was, but I still thank Dr. Sycip to this day.

Upon launching our first product, Panda corn starch, a price war ensued. After the smoke cleared, Universal Corn Products was still left standing. It is the foundation upon which JG Summit Holdings now stands.

Interestingly, the price war also forced the closure of a third cornstarch company, and one of their chemists was Lucio Tan, who always kids me that I caused him to lose his job. I always reply that if it were not for me, he will not be one of the richest men in the Philippines today.

To: YOU
Date: TODAY
From: GOD
Subject: YOURSELF
Reference: LIFEThis is God. Today I will be handling all of your problems for you. I do not need your help. So, have a nice day. I love you.

P.S. And remember. If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it yourself! Please put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.

If you find yourself stuck in traffic, don’t despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.

Should you have a bad day at work, think of the man who has been out of work for years.

Should you despair over a relationship gone bad, think of the person who has never known what it’s like to love and be loved in return.

Should you grieve the passing of another weekend, think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.

Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance, think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.

Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror, think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.

Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what my purpose is? Be thankful. There are those who didn’t live long enough to get the opportunity.

Should you find yourself the victim of other people’s bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities, remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!

Should you decide to share this to a friend, Thank you. You may have touched their life in ways you will never know! Now, you have a nice day.